Carol Glatz (Vatican City, CNS). The greatest risk in life is to waste it by not seeking to follow God's plan, Pope Leo XIV said Sunday as he proclaimed two new saints. They are two young lay people of the 20th and 21st centuries.
"Saints Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis are an invitation to all of us, especially the young, not to waste our lives, but to direct them upwards. And to turn them into masterpieces."
"The simple but winning formula of their holiness," he said, is accessible to everyone at any time. "They encourage us with their words, "Not I, but God," as Carlo used to say. Pier Giorgio used to say, 'If you have God at the center of all your actions, then you will reach the end."'"
Before canonizing the first saints of his pontificate, Pope Leo greeted the more than 80,000 faithful who had gathered early in St. Peter's Square. He wanted to share his joy with them before the start of the solemn ceremony.
"It is a day of great joy," Pope Leo XIV's opening greeting.
"Brothers and sisters, today is a wonderful celebration for all of Italy, for the whole Church, for the whole world," he said before the Mass.
"Although the celebration is very solemn, it is also a day of great joy, and I especially wanted to greet the many young people who have come to this holy Mass," he said. To the families of the future saints, and to the associations and communities to which the young people had belonged.
Pope Leo asked everyone to "feel in their hearts what Pier Giorgio and Carlo experienced. This love for Jesus Christ, especially in the Eucharist, but also in the poor, in our brothers and sisters."
"All of you, all of us, are also called to be saints." He said this before retiring to prepare for Mass and pay homage to a statue of Mary with the Child Jesus. Also to the reliquaries containing the relics of the two young men.
"Abandon ourselves to the adventure He offers us."
In his homily, the Pope underlined the call of Jesus in the Gospel of the day "to abandon ourselves without hesitation to the adventure that he offers us, with the intelligence and strength that his Spirit gives us.
That we can receive to the extent that we empty ourselves of the things and ideas to which we are attached, in order to listen to his word".
That is what the two new saints did and what every disciple of Christ is called to do, he said.
Many people, especially when they are young, he said, face a kind of "crossroads" in life as they ponder what to do with it.
The saints of the Church are often portrayed as "great figures". And it is forgotten that for them everything began when, while still young, they said 'yes' to God and gave themselves to him completely, reserving nothing for themselves," the Pope said.
Frassati and Acutis: "in love with Jesus".
"Today we look at St. Pier Giorgio. Frassati and St. Carlo AcutisHe said: a young man at the beginning of the 20th century and a teenager of our times, both in love with Jesus and ready to give everything for him," he said.
Pope Leo devoted much of his homily to sharing quotes from both of them and details of their lives, something Pope Francis had moved away from, preferring to focus more on the readings of the day.
Pier Giorgio: "a beacon for lay spirituality".
"The life of Pier Giorgio is a beacon for lay spirituality," Pope Leo said.
"For him, faith was not a private devotion, but was driven by the power of the Gospel and his membership in church associations," he said.
"He was also generously committed to society, contributed to political life and devoted himself ardently to the service of the poor."
Acutis "found Jesus in his family".
"Carlo, for his part, found Jesus in his family, thanks to his parents, Andrea and Antonia, who are here today with his two siblings, Francesca and Michele," he said. Meanwhile, the crowd applauded and Antonia smiled shyly at the camera.
St. Acutis also found Jesus in the Jesuit school he attended and "especially in the sacraments celebrated in the parish community," he said. "He grew up naturally integrating prayer, sports, study and charity into his days as a child and young man."
The Pope noted that the new saints "cultivated their love for God and for their brothers and sisters through simple acts, within everyone's reach. Such as daily Mass, prayer and, especially, Eucharistic adoration."
Frassati was born on April 6, 1901 in Turin and died there on July 4, 1925, at the age of 24, of polio. Acutis was born to Italian parents on May 3, 1991 in London and died in Monza, Italy, on October 12, 2006, at the age of 15, of leukemia.
The disease did not prevent them from loving
The Pope added that "even when illness struck them and shortened their young lives, even this did not stop them or prevent them from loving, offering themselves to God, blessing him and praying to him for themselves and for everyone."
Several family members and people close to the new saints attended the Mass, along with dignitaries, such as Italian President Sergio Mattarella.
Acutis' family and the miracle of the young Costa Rican girl
St. Acutis' parents, Andrea and Antoniaand his twin siblings, Michele and Francesca, who were born four years after their brother's death, were present. Together they brought the offerings to the Pope. Michele also read the first reading of the Mass in English.
Valeria Valverde, who read the first prayer of the faithful, is a young Costa Rican woman who suffered a serious head injury while living in Italy. It was her inexplicable healing that provided the second miracle necessary for the canonization of St. Acutis.
Frassati, in lay movements
St. Frassati was active in Catholic Action, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the Italian Federation of Catholic Universities and the Dominican Third Order.
Lorenzo Zardi, vice-president of the Italian Catholic Action youth group, read the second reading at Mass. Michele Tridente, secretary general of the lay movement, also presented the offertory gifts to the Pope.
Before praying the Angelus, the Pope again thanked everyone for coming to celebrate the two new saints of the Church.
Prayer for the Holy Land and Ukraine: "God wants peace!"
However, he also asked the faithful for "unceasing prayer for peace, especially in the Holy Land, in Ukraine and in all other lands bloodied by war."
"To the rulers I repeat: listen to the voice of conscience," he said.
"Apparent victories won with weapons, sowing death and destruction, are in reality defeats and will never bring peace and security," he stated.
"God does not want war, God wants peace!" he exclaimed to applause. God gives strength to those who work to leave behind the cycle of hatred and follow the path of dialogue.
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This information was originally published in OSV News. You can consult it here.
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